In case you missed it over the weekend, the news cycle decided to break into a fine Sunday of Olympic coverage to drop a nugget for college football fans to chew on. ESPN's Pete Thamel and Dan Murphy obtained a draft of the notice of allegations to Michigan and it started a lot of conversations and conjecture in the media.
Of course, with anything, there are three schools of thought. Those with Maize and Blue in their blood don't believe the information is really anything terribly new and still believe there will be little more than a slap on the wrist for the program. There's also the position from those who don't like Michigan all that much (i.e, Ohio State fans) that the hammer about to drop from the NCAA. The reality -- as in most cases -- is that the truth and outcome will probably fall somewhere in-between.
But hey, in case you haven't heard enough opinions about the Connor Stalions sign-stealing allegations, then we've got one more for you and it comes from someone who loves to give his opinion as much as he likes to breathe air, everyone's favorite SEC mouthpiece, ESPN's Paul Finebaum.
Finebaum has been very critical of Jim Harbaugh and Michigan over the years, so it might be a bit surprising to know that he actually thinks that the NCAA won't be able to throw the book at Michigan over this fiasco that's been in the news cycle for almost a year now.
While appearing on ESPN's First Take, he weighed in on what the latest leak of this NCAA investigation means.
“I thought this was over last year but apparently it's not and the reason that it's not is because the NCAA takes forever to do anything so they're just now getting to the disposition of this case. Where's it going? I don't think it's really going anywhere because the NCAA doesn't have a lot of teeth," Finebaum said. "Does Sherrone Moore look bad deleting texts? Of course, he does. Everybody knows that that's not the answer because there's always ways to find out these things. But I don't think this really ultimately is going to mean very much because the NCAA is almost powerless. Why is it powerless? Because the second it does something there will be an army of lawyers trying to get injunctions, and they will succeed."
Finebaum went on to say that there will be a lot of talk and reaction, but ultimately, the whole thing will boil down to nothing more than a sideways look.
"The NCAA's track record in court is worse than the Carolina Panthers on the gridiron -- they have no chance against anyone," Finebaum continued. "I think ultimately, whether this sounds serious or people want to make a big deal out of it, it's going nowhere. The biggest part of all of this is going to come in about three weeks when Netflix has a special on Connor Stalions where he tells all -- we'll all react the next day, but ultimately, Sherrone Moore will stay as the coach, he may miss a game against some directional MAC school, but ultimately it won't affect last year's title, and it's not going to affect their chances of making the playoff this year."
.@finebaum reacts to Michigan head coach Sherrone Moore allegedly violating NCAA rules. pic.twitter.com/EV1KFDAs3a
— First Take (@FirstTake) August 5, 2024
The reality of this situation is we can all talk and predict what will happen here, but it does sound like the NCAA is ready to try and bring a decent punishment down with the language that's being leaked. But Finebaum is right, the NCAA might have a hard time doing what it wants to Michigan. At some point, I think everyone will want to just move on from all of this.